Do we like Ilhan Omar?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A solid record on climate, LGBTQ+ rights and migrants, held back by one apologised-for 2019 episode and an unresolved federal investigation.
Omar was born in Mogadishu and fled Somalia's civil war with her family at eight, spending four years in a Kenyan refugee camp. They were granted asylum in the US in 1995 and landed in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside by 1997, and she became a citizen in 2000. In 2016 she beat a 44-year incumbent in a Democratic primary for the Minnesota House, and in 2018 she went to Congress as one of the first two Muslim women in the House.
She also cops a staggering amount of abuse. A man sprayed an unknown liquid at her at a January town hall and was arrested, and Trump then baselessly said “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” Trump has also called her “garbage” and said of Somalis “I don't want them in our country”; she answered “We also know we're not garbage.” She says death threats rise whenever he targets her.
The October search is the big one. AP reports Homeland Security Investigations agents took 17 items, and federal authorities are investigating potential fraud in her family's immigration paperwork, with grand jury subpoenas reportedly issued to some relatives. No charges against her have been reported. She calls the claims “disgusting lies” and says she's “confident in the fact that I didn't do anything wrong.”
On the good side, she's sponsored a Universal School Meals Program Act, the No Shame at School Act, a Department of Peacebuilding Act and a bill to rein in shrinkflation. Bills that sit in committee don't change lives, but the direction is consistent. The blemish on her own conduct is small: in 2019 Minnesota's campaign finance board ordered a $500 fine and a $3,469 repayment over campaign funds spent improperly.
So: backs LGBTQ+ people and the climate in her own words and bills, took a hit for a 2019 tweet row and apologised, and is now under a federal probe that is unproven and which she denies. We'd back her, but watch what the DOJ files, not what the feud says.